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UN calls on Israel to halt demolition of 13,000 Palestinian homes

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Some 13,000 Palestinian homes are scheduled for demolition in the occupied West Bank. (AFP/File)

Some 13,000 Palestinian homes are scheduled for demolition in the occupied West Bank. (AFP/File)

by Press TV

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on Israel to halt a plan to demolish some 13,000 Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank.

“As we have said repeatedly, the secretary general calls on the Israeli authorities to halt demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures,” Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon, told reporters in New York on Tuesday.

The UN chief also called on Israeli authorities “to revoke plans that would result in the forcible transfer of Palestinian communities, and to implement an inclusive planning and zoning regime that will enable Palestinians’ residential and community development needs to be met,” Dujarric added.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a Monday report that the Palestinian structures are currently under Israeli demolition orders, adding that the orders “leave affected households in a state of chronic uncertainty and threat.”

It also warned that the destruction of Palestinian homes leads to “displacement and disruption of livelihoods” among other things.

Tel Aviv claims the Palestinian structures are demolished because they were built without construction permits, but Palestinians argue such authorizations are routinely denied.

On September 3, Israel destroyed seven Palestinian structures in the East Tayba Bedouin community of the central West Bank, displacing nine Palestinians, including five children.

The Tel Aviv regime intensified the destruction of Palestinian homes last month, razing to the ground as many as 143 Palestinian structures, which is the highest such number in five years.

In August, 31 international organizations, including Oxfam and Amnesty International, criticized a “surge” in West Bank demolitions, saying Tel Aviv is using them to seize property for the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

More than half a million Israelis live in more than 120 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank in 1967.

The settlements are considered illegal by the UN and many countries because the territories were occupied by Israel and are thus subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

EU sets deadline to relocate 160,000 refugees

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EU Commission President Juncker calls on member nations to agree on plan by next week as he unveils $2bn refugee fund.

eu-refugee

by Al Jazeera

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called on EU countries to agree by next week to share 160,000 refugees, as thousands continued to stream across European borders, fleeing from war and persecution.

In an impassioned appeal on Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Juncker unveiled a list of new proposals to help Europe confront its biggest refugee crisis since World War II.

The plan, which will see Germany and France take in the lion’s share of refugees, is likely to run into serious resistance from some member states.

Juncker warned that Greece, Italy and Hungary, where most of the refugees are currently camped out, can no longer cope alone.

“It is time for bold, determined action by the European Union,” Juncker told EU lawmakers, noting that some 500,000 migrants have entered Europe this year, many from conflict-torn Syria and Libya.

In his proposal, Juncker wants 22 of the member states to accept another 120,000 people, on top of the 40,000 already agreed upon in June, bringing the total number to 160,000.

All the 120,000 additional refugees are currently in Greece, Italy and Hungary. Under the new proposal Germany will take in 31,443 refugees; France, 24,031; Spain, 14,931; Poland, 9,287; and The Netherlands, 7,214. Other member nations will take the rest based on wealth, population, unemployment rate and the number of asylum applicants already processed.

“It is a matter of humanity and human dignity,” Juncker said.

“We are fighting against Islamic State, why are we not ready to accept those who are fleeing Islamic State?” he said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group that has taken over territories in Iraq and Syria.

“It is high time to act, to manage the refugee crisis, because there is no alternative. No rhetoric. Action is what is needed for the time.”

Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from Strasbourg, said the EU leader “told it like it is”, making the point that many Europeans themselves have been refugees at in recent years.

Stiff resistance

Under the proposal, countries refusing to take in refugees could face financial penalties.

Germany, which hosts the largest number of refugees, has already backed the idea. It has welcomed Syrian refugees, waiving EU rules and saying it expects to deal with more than 800,000 asylum seekers this year alone.

Italy, which is one of the main arrival points for thousands of refugees crossing the Mediterranean is also in favour and so are France and Spain.

But the plan has met stiff opposition from countries like Hungary, which is building a fence to keep refugees away from its borders.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from the Roszke on the Hungarian Serbian border on Wednesday, said Hungary has already clamped down on refugees crossing the country, and has stopped providing information to countries like Austria about the movement of refugees.

Its neighbours, the Czech Republic, Poland and the Slovak Republic have also said that mandatory and permanent quotas would be unacceptable.

Following Juncker’s speech on Wednesday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said Europe does not need a new plan to deal with the crisis, and instead stick to an earlier agreement.

“It is necessary to move from negotiating tables to action and to work hard on those measures that we have approved with other EU leaders and agreed on in the past months,” Sobotka said in a statement.

The EU’s first refugee plan never won full support, and only around 32,000 refugees have been allocated. Hungary was among the countries to reject it, along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.

Juncker wants both plans endorsed on Monday at a meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels. “This has to be done in a compulsory way,” he said.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the new plan and also called for it to be made compulsory.

On Monday, France threw its weight behind the EU plan by saying that it would take in 24,000 refugees this year, exactly the figure the new scheme calls for.

Britain, which is not taking part, announced separately that it would welcome up to 20,000 refugees currently in countries outside of the EU over the next five years.

On Wednesday, the Commission also unveiled a plan to set up a $2bn fund to help African nations better manage their borders and help reduce the number of refugees heading for Europe.

UN to Europe: Guarantee to relocate 200,000 refugees

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UNHCR spokeswoman calls for EU-led refugee mega-reception centres to be established in Greece, Italy and Hungary.

EU states are divided on a quota system, which allocates refugees to different member countries [AP]

EU states are divided on a quota system, which allocates refugees to different member countries [AP]

by Al Jazeera

The United Nations has called on European states to guarantee relocation for 200,000 refugees, as record numbers flee to the continent from war-torn nations.

UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that Europe is a “wealthy” continent that could manage the numbers of people coming in.

The UN official said European Union countries needed to form a plan where it was mandatory for member states to accept refugees.

“There should be EU-led mega-reception centres established in Greece, in Italy and also in Hungary – whereby the people arriving could go to these centres and be received in decent humane conditions, and apply for asylum” Fleming said.

She added that under the current system, countries on Europe’s frontier were being “overburdened”.

At an earlier press briefing, Fleming said there was not a “German solution to a European problem”, in reference to the leading role taken by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in ending the crisis.

“Those can only work if there is a guaranteed relocation system whereby European countries saying yes will take X number. We believe it should be 200,000, that’s the number we believe need relocation in Europe countries.”

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Vienna, said many refugees arriving there were worried about new measures that would restrict their movement.

“Even the Austrian government at this point doesn’t have a clear-cut path ahead… We spoke to a member of the interior ministry and quite clearly the government is struggling to come up with a coherent policy to stay within EU rules,” Jamjoom said.

A record 7,000 Syrian refugees arrived in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on Monday, while some 30,000 are on Greek islands, including 20,000 on Lesbos, according to the UN.

‘Exodus’

Fleming’s comments came as EU President Donald Tusk warned that the refugee crisis affecting Europe was part of an “exodus” from war-torn countries that could last years.

Tusk said the current movement of people mainly from the Middle East would be a “problem for many years to come”.

“The present wave of migration is not a one-time incident but the beginning of a real exodus,” the EU president said addressing a thinktank in Brussels on Monday.

European leaders are scrambling for solutions as bloody conflicts in mainly Syria and Iraq send hundreds of thousands of refugees on dangerous voyages through the Balkans and across the Mediterranean.

“Let us have no illusions that we have a silver bullet to reverse the situation,” he said.

Tusk, who represents the bloc’s leaders, urged for pragmatism and said member states must put aside their deep differences in facing the crisis.

One of the flashpoints of the crisis is Hungary, where tens of thousands of refugees seek to transit through on their way to wealthier EU states.

On Monday night, hundreds of angry and frustrated asylum seekers broke through police lines near Hungary’s southern border with Serbia and began marching north towards Budapest.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Roszke in Hungary, spoke to several refugees who said they had been poorly treated and did not have access to adequate shelter or sanitation.

One refugee said she had been beaten with a stick, while another pleaded with authorities to help his sick child.

The five-year-old, who was suffering from heat exhaustion and fever, was eventually helped by Hungarian medical teams and put on a drip, Simmons said.

Fresh clashes also erupted between police and refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Monday night, which authorities said was “on the verge of explosion”.

A number of European countries have announced they will be taking in part of the influx of people wanting to escape the conflicts in the Middle East.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said his country would resettle up to 20,000 Syrians from camps in Turkey, Jordan, and Syria over the next five years.

French President Francois Hollande said his country would take in 24,000 refugees over the next two years.

The United States government said it was considering a range of approaches in response to the crisis.

UN calls on EU states to accept 200,000 refugees from Syria, Iraq, elsewhere

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Over 300,000 refugees have crossed the Mediterranean Sea so far in 2015. (AFP/File)

Over 300,000 refugees have crossed the Mediterranean Sea so far in 2015. (AFP/File)

by Press TV

The UN has criticized the European Union (EU) for failing to find a response to the spiraling refugee influx, urging the bloc to accept and distribute up to 200,000 asylum-seekers across the continent as part of a binding program for relocation of refugees.

“People who are found to have a valid protection claim… must … benefit from a mass relocation program, with the mandatory participation of all EU member states,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement on Friday.

“A very preliminary estimate would indicate a potential need to increase relocation opportunities to as many as 200,000 places,” he added.

The UN official criticized the EU for failing to “find an effective common response” to the “untenable situation” and said the only way to solve this problem is for the EU and all member states to “implement a common strategy, based on responsibility, solidarity and trust.”

“This is a primarily refugee crisis,” Guterres said, adding the vast majority of those arriving in Europe, including Greece, come from conflict zones like Syria and Iraq and are simply running for their lives.

“All people on the move in these tragic circumstances deserve to see their human rights and dignity fully respected, independently of their legal status,” he said.

Stressing that “the massive flow of people will not stop until the root causes of their plight are addressed,” the UN official said that “much more must be done to prevent conflicts and stop the ongoing wars that are driving so many from their homes.”

According to the UN official, more than 300,000 people have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far this year, with over 2,600 losing their lives in the dangerous crossing, including three-year-old Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, whose photo has just stirred the hearts of the world public.

“Europe cannot go on responding to this crisis with a piecemeal or incremental approach,” Guterres said, referring to the pictures of the dead child whose lifeless body was found face down on a Turkish beach Wednesday.

The UN official’s remarks come as Europe is facing an unprecedented immigration and refugee crisis, which has escalated over summer. Refugees are coming directly to Europe instead of staying in camps in neighboring countries.

The continent is now divided over how to deal with a flood of people, mainly Syrians fleeing war in their homeland.

The 28-nation bloc is to convene a special meeting in two weeks to discuss a record surge in numbers and the opening up of new routes over the Balkans in addition to the Mediterranean Sea route.

UN condemns arson attack by Israeli settlers

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Security forces inspect the West Bank house destroyed in an arson attack on July 31, 2015. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

Security forces inspect the West Bank house destroyed in an arson attack on July 31, 2015. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

by Andolu Ajansi

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday sharply condemned an arson attack by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank that killed an 18-month-old Palestinian boy.

Ban “calls for the perpetrators of this terrorist act to be promptly brought to justice”, read a statement issued from his office.

Ali Saeed Dawabsheh was burned to death early Friday when Jewish settlers attacked a house in Duma village in the West Bank’s southern city of Nablus. His parents and brother also suffered serious injuries.

Palestinian officials said the attack was carried out by Jewish settlers affiliated with the Price Tag militant group.

“Continued failures to effectively address impunity for repeated acts of settler violence have led to another horrific incident involving the death of an innocent life. This must end,” the UN statement said.

It said the absence of a political process and Israel’s illegal settlement expanding activities, as well as its demolition of Palestinian homes, had “given rise to violent extremism on both sides.

“This presents a further threat to the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for statehood as well as to the security of the people of Israel,” read the statement.

International law views East Jerusalem and the West Bank as occupied territories and deems any construction of Israeli settlements on the land to be illegal.

Earlier Friday, UN’s top Mideast envoy Nickolay Mladenov also condemned the “heinous” attack, calling it an act carried out for a political objective.

“We must not permit such acts to allow hate and violence to bring more personal tragedies and to bury any prospect of peace,” said Mladenov, who is the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

“This reinforces the need for an immediate resolution of the conflict and an end to the occupation,” he added.

Direct peace talks between Israel and Palestinians remain deadlocked amid Israel’s unilateral settlement-building policies in occupied lands and Palestinians’ efforts on international recognition of their statehood.

Saudi Arabian airstrike kills 120 civilians as US-backed war in Yemen rages

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Humanitarian crisis continues with no end in sight as forces armed and supported by the United States continue to terrorize the people of Yemen

Houthi followers demonstrate against Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen's capital Sanaa July 24, 2015. A Saudi-led coalition of Arab states has been bombing the Iranian-allied Houthi rebel movement and army forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh since late March in a bid to restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. (Photo: Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)

Houthi followers demonstrate against Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen’s capital Sanaa July 24, 2015. A Saudi-led coalition of Arab states has been bombing the Iranian-allied Houthi rebel movement and army forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh since late March in a bid to restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. (Photo: Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

Intense fighting between Houthi factions and Yemeni forces allied with a Saudi-backed military campaign continued on Sunday, just a day after the killing of approximately 120 civilians by a Saudi airstrike spurred an impromptu call for a five-day ceasefire in the war-torn and poverty-stricken country.

According to the Associated Press:

The airstrikes late Friday hit workers’ housing for a power plant in Mokha, flattening some of the buildings to the ground […] A fire erupted in the area, charring many of the corpses, including children, women and elderly people.

Wahib Mohammed, an eyewitness and area resident, said some of the bodies were torn apart by the force of the blast and buried in a mass grave on Saturday. Some of the strikes also hit nearby livestock pens, he said. Human and animal blood pooled on the ground of the surrounding area.

The deadly strike highlights growing concerns that the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes are increasingly killing civilians as they continue to target Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

Responding to the carnage, Hassan Boucenine of the Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders told AP, “It just shows what is the trend now of the air strikes from the coalition. Now, it’s a house, it’s a market, it’s anything.”

In the wake of the deadly airstrike on Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition, which includes the United States and allied Gulf states, called for a five-day ceasefire that would begin at midnight local time on Sunday.

However, even as mixed reporting by Reuters indicated that Houthi military leaders may have rejected the call, a fierce battle raged near the port city Aden over a strategically valuable air base:

The al-Anad base, 50 km (30 miles) from the major southern port city, has been held by the Iranian-allied Houthi movement for much of a fourth-month-old civil war, and is regarded as a strategic asset commanding the approaches to Aden.

The Arab coalition on Saturday announced a ceasefire to take effect at 11.59 p.m. (2059 GMT) on Sunday evening for five days to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Reuters indicated that a Houthi leader may have taken to Twitter to reject the call for the midnight ceasefire, but other journalists expressed doubt that the message was valid:

Since the Saudi-led bombing began in March of this year, the United Nations last week estimated that in addition to the many more thousands injured and maimed, at least 1,693 civilians have been killed in Yemen, of which 365 were children. Already one of the poorest nations on the planet before the fighting and subsequent bombing campaign began, both the UN and independent aid agencies have warned that so long as the war continues and humanitarian blockade enforced, Yemen’s further spiral towards total political chaos and a full-fledged famine will continue.

UN endorses Iran nuclear agreement

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Measure unanimously adopted by Security Council to clear path for lifting of international sanctions on Iran’s economy.

UN

by Al Jazeera

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution that will clear a path for international sanctions on Iran’s economy to be lifted.

On condition that Iran respects the agreement to the letter, seven UN resolutions passed since 2006 to sanction Iran will be gradually terminated, according to the resolution’s text.

“The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously,” Gerard van Bohemen, ambassador of New Zealand, which holds the current presidency of the Security Council, announced after Monday’s vote.

(AFP)

International Scientists issue call for climate action now: ‘Commit to Our Common Future’

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‘Window for economically feasible solutions’ is closing, statement says

Demonstrators demand an ambitious climate deal from the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009. (Photo: AinhoaGoma/Oxfam International/flickr/cc)

Demonstrators demand an ambitious climate deal from the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009. (Photo: AinhoaGoma/Oxfam International/flickr/cc)

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

Time is running out to deal with the “defining challenge of the 21st century,” a group of leading scientists said Friday at the close of a climate conference, and added that this must be the year of bold action like taxing carbon to rein in greenhouse gases.

The call was issued in the outcome statement from the Our Common Future under Climate Change, a four-day meeting that gathered nearly 2,000 international academics five months ahead of the United Nations climate talks in Paris, COP21.

“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal,” it states. “Its effects have the potential to impact every region of the Earth, every ecosystem, and many aspects of the human endeavour. Its solutions require a bold commitment to our common future.

“The window for economically feasible solutions with a reasonable prospect of holding warming to 2°C or less is rapidly closing,” the statement reads, referring to the widely accepted warming threshold for the planet—an increase that many say will still bring disaster.

And a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions—40-70 percent below current levels by 2050—is what is necessary, they state.

Among the “ambitious” actions laid out in the statement are dumping fossil fuel subsidies and putting a price on carbon. The latter, the statement reads, “helps level the playing field among energy technologies by charging for the damage caused by climate change and rewarding other benefits of mitigation activities.”

Investments in climate change mitigation, adaptation, and clean energy can help bring about “inclusive and sustainable” growth, it adds.

The outcome statement was embraced by the UN top climate official, Christiana Figueres, who stated: “The world’s leading researchers on climate have underlined the crucial importance of nations focusing on a long term goal—call it zero emissions, net zero or climate neutrality. The overwhelming consensus is that Paris 2015 needs to send an unequivocal signal that the world will take a path towards a steep and deep decline in greenhouse gas pollution by the second half of the century.”

Among the signatories to the outcome statement is Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) director John Schellnhuber. He also spoke at a plenary session at the conference, and called for nothing short of “an induced implosion of the carbon economy over the next 20-30 years” in order to keep warming under the 2°C threshold.

“In the end it is a moral decision,” the Guardian quotes Schellnhuber as saying. “Do you want to be part of the generation that screwed up the planet for the next 1,000 years? I don’t think we should make that decision.”

One in every 122 humans forcibly displaced by war and persecution: UN

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New report exposes ‘unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before.’

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

As wars and persecution escalate worldwide, one out of every 122 people on the planet is a refugee, seeking asylum, or internally displaced, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported Thursday.

Taken together, this population of humans wrenched from their homes by violence would constitute the 24th largest country in the world.

The agency’s new report, Global Trends: World at War, chronicles what UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres calls “an age of unprecedented mass displacement.” Based on data gathered in 2014, the study documents the harrowing human toll of new wars, resurgent conflicts, and long-term violent displacement.

At least 59.5 million people were violently displaced during 2014, roughly half of them children. This is a dramatic jump from the 51.2 million people displaced in 2013. And these numbers do not include the many people who are displaced by poverty and global economic inequality—meaning that the actual number of people uprooted is far higher.

Displacement has increased four-fold over the past four years, with the conflict in Syria acting as the largest driver of this rise and surging conflicts from the Central African Republic to Yemen to Ukraine also fueling these grim numbers. The uprooted also include the long-term displaced, including people from Afghanistan and Palestine.

Despite the role of rich nations in driving this crisis through increasing militarism, the UN report notes that “the global distribution of refugees remains heavily skewed away from wealthier nations and towards the less wealthy,” with countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, and Lebanon taking in far more refugees than European nations and the United States.

“Far too many of the world’s richest and most peaceful countries are ignoring their global responsibility to provide assistance and protection,” said secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland, in a press statement responding to the UN’s findings. “They are hiding behind closed borders.”

Western countries are not just closing their borders, however—they are also militarizing them.

As migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe face the rising danger of death at sea, the European Union is rolling back its humanitarian rescue response and replacing it with a militarized one by targeting and attacking alleged networks of smugglers.

In a letter released last month, over 300 slavery and migration scholars asked, “Where is the moral justification for some of the world’s richest nations employing their naval and technological might in a manner that leads to the death of men, women and children from some of the world’s poorest and most war torn regions?”

Speaking to this crisis, Guterres said in a press statement: “We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before.”

“For an age of unprecedented mass displacement,” Guterres continued, “we need an unprecedented humanitarian response and a renewed global commitment to tolerance and protection for people fleeing conflict and persecution.”

Israel bars UN investigator from entering Gaza

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It was the second time Makarim Wibisono, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, had been barred entry by Israel. (AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)

It was the second time Makarim Wibisono, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, had been barred entry by Israel. (AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)

by Press TV

As the prospect of a UN report on Israel’s 2014 bloodletting in Gaza draws nearer, the world body’s point man on human rights situation in the occupied territories is kept outside the Palestinian territory by Israel.

Tel Aviv once again prevented Makarim Wibisono from visiting the coastal enclave last week, with Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon saying outright on Monday, “We didn’t allow this visit.”

“Israel cooperates with all the international commissions and all (UN) rapporteurs, except when the mandate handed to them is anti-Israeli and Israel has no chance to make itself heard,” the official said, despite the age-old and unflinching US-led support for Israel on the international arena, most visibly at the United Nations.

Wibisono reports to the UN Human Rights Council. The council has been investigating the war and whose relevant report is expected to be published in the coming days.

Israel had also barred Wibisono from entering last year for a similar visit.

Nearly 2,200 Palestinians lost their lives and some 11,000 were injured in the July-August 2014 assaults. Gaza Health officials say the victims included 578 children and nearly 260 women with more than 3,100 children injured in the offensive.

The UN has said Israel was responsible for the deadly bombing of several UN institutions, including schools, in which displaced Palestinian civilians were sheltering.

In a report released Sunday, Israel defended its conduct in the war, calling it both “lawful” and “legitimate.”

Israel has been invariably justifying its incessant attacks on the impoverished sliver by alleging it has a duty to defend itself against the rockets fired from Gaza. The projectiles are seldom known to have caused injury or damage.

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